#Those XXX.AVI Files ?
20 messages in this thread
Lynne, my dear. I am in my late 70's – otherwise an IMPATIENT old sod!
None-the-less, I still love to tinker, hence my interest. Just got the Feb
NAUTILUS. Still the same. The xxxx.AVI files load and play in little jerks. You
cannot enjoy the pictures and cannot understand the sounds which appear at 10
second intervals.
I just wonder if there is not something "basic" which I have missed. A special
buffer or cache which can be arranged and used perhaps. Such a thing would
compensate for my year old – but ancient – computer's failings. The VOC files
play OK, and I can even understand the yankee twang!
Your attention to my frustration has been a reward however. In the USA, where
overlooking problems is a national avocation, it is exceptional to get
encouragement and help with mine.
Wish this cold and dreary winter would go away!
Cheerio…….. HILARY.
I've yet to view an AVI file on any machine that didn't have some jerkiness,
but what you describe is extreme.
Because you are having long pauses with both video and sound, it really
points the finger first at the CD ROM. To play AVI files, a CD ROM MUST
transfer at a minimum 150Kbs. Many inexpensive and older CD ROMs do not. If
yours does, then the next clash comes at the video driver, which can be
overwhelmed with having to decompress and play what's coming in too fast for it
to handle. Upgraded video drivers and upgraded audio drivers can help somewhat.
Thanks for your comments Jack. I have a SONY CD-ROM Player. The specs' give the
following:-
Data transfer rate: Sustained = 150 K byte/sec Burst = 600 K byte/sec.
So it seems to conform.
The computer is a 386DX running at 33 MHz, with 8 Megs of SIMM's. The video
card is one I recently bought to speed up Windows ( A fast Vieo 7 card).
All my other CD-ROMS work fast and fine, only the dratted Nautilus has
problems!
All the best….. HILARY.
I forgot where this started, but your equipment sounds okay. Is it NAUTILUS
that's the problem or AVI files? If the latter, and all else being equal, I
would suspect that the video driver is the villain.
Hilary, PMBI, and I'm coming in late on this message, but I have a SONY CDROM
model 531-01 that I bought from DAK and it runs Nautilus CDs just fine. The
video runs choppy but I attribute that to the slow CDROM because the drive
light never goes off. Everything else works great (but sometimes slow).
Phil Haase 🙂
I just upgraded from a one-year old Sony CD rom reader to a new Toshiba 3401
double speed.
I also had big problems with the Nautilus "mini movies," with choppy sound and
less-than=smooth video. The Toshiba makes all the difference in the world! Now
I've got to pull out my old Nautilus discs and see how they were meant to be
viewed!
Robert, does the Toshiba use a SCSI connection and can it be hooked into a
SBP sound card?
Phil 🙂
The Toshibas and most good CD ROMs are SCSI-2s. They are BEST run off their
OWN SCSI card (to which a lot of other neat stuff can also be chained) since
SCSI ports on sound cards tend to be crippled and often reduce throughput,
making a superfast CD ROM no better than a slow one.
Jack, thanks for the info. Are the Toshs better than the NEC Multi-spins?
Phil 🙂
Well, the latest Toshibas are about on a par with the NECs, I think, and
there are several other good top of the line CDRs as well. I wouldn't
necessarily recommend one over the other, but hooking up a multispin drive to a
sound card port essentially negates the double speed and makes it about as fast
as a non-multispin.
What I like is the new Panasonic; it can handle and juggle 6 CD ROMs at
once, can spin at double the NEC's speed–600!–and with a wide SCSI board like
an EISA board and FastSCSI ports and cables can beat the daylights out of
everything else. It's on my wish list.
Jack, padron my ignorance, but how does hooking a Multispin to a sound card
negate the speed advantage of the CDROM?
Phil 🙂
Yes, the Toshiba used a SCSI connection. Mine came with a SCSI board
(probably cost me an additional $100). You can't connect the Toshiba
directly to a SB Pro board, but if you're talking about the direct CD
output, you can — I had to buy a cable from Creative Labs for my
SB-16 and another cable from Toshiba for the CD Rom and connect them
together.
Huh? I don't know which Toshiba you have, but the one I have (a Corel OEM
model) connects from its output ports to the SoundBlaster Pro aux in stereo
port with a cheap Radio Shack cable and to the bus via a stock SCSI cable.
Manufacturers make different drives for different markets. You have to know
what the drive is, not just who manufactures it.
Hilary,
Just so you don't get the wrong idea–I'm a Nautilus enthusiast, but not
connected with Nautilus otherwise. And I seriously doubt that you are the
oldest subscriber/user, if you're only 70.<g>
I "fixed" my .avi files by purchasing a 486/33, but that's kind of a
pricey solution.<g> Actually, on my 386SX/16 system it improved the
jerky sound when I added a 64K RAM buffer for my SLL CDROM (which is MPC
compliant except for its 8K buffer).
I think that an up-to-date video driver would improve .avi video playback
on the 386 system, because the CPU is fully occupied with .avi files. But
my video card has only 256K memory, so I have to add more if I want to use
the latest drivers for VGA 256 colors. You might see if you could improve
performance by installing the most recent available video driver for your
system. (These are available from manufacturers' BB, or in various places on
CompuServe–but you probably know that already.)
Lynne
the 256 color VGA drivers. You might
I have yet to find an AVI file that runs without some stoppages, although I
got the skips down to around 5% by switching the video card to 16 bit "word"
mode. Even on the AST system with the Paradise card here AVI is still a bit
jerky, and that's a 1 meg card. I looked at the Tandy multimedia PC demo here
recently and it had some jerkiness, too.
It struck me, though, that when I was viewing some of the videos on the VfW
CD ROM, I was really looking at the video equivalent of mono 78 RPM records or
TelStar 1 with its 4 minute broadcast window or somesuch. Right now it's just a
toy of little practical value. In a couple of years, with new advances, though,
I can see it becoming a very impressive system.
Jack,
Yes, the .avi files are toys–which is why I didn't mind my poor results
on the 386SX very much. There wasn't anything to lament. But the
difference I see in the identical files when viewed on the 486 makes me
eager to keep up with the improvements.
Lynne
Sorry for the delay in replying Lynne. Have been installing new and larger hard
drive. Now re your suggestions……
You said "you added a 64K RAM buffer to the SLL CDROM" for a partial fix. Just
what did you do? Sorry – I am somewhat of a novice in this computer stuff –
especially software.
My video card was aquired recently. It boasted a spped up for Windows. The
software for it is dated around Aug 1992.
Incidently, I am trying to get a new and better Microsoft driver for the
CD-ROM. Mine is version 2.01. Understand that now one uses 2.20 or better. Is
there anything in this or an other Forum that I can download?
All the best Lynne……. HILARY. (The Elder)
Hilary,
My other system has a Sony Laser Library 7205 CDROM drive. Trantor
Systems makes an upgrade kit (just a jumper and a jumper wire that you install
on your SLL controller card, plus a new software driver) that makes the SLL
7205/535 MPC-compliant by adding a buffer of up to 64K from RAM. The upgrade
works with the Sony CDB-241, CDB-242, and CDB-244; it requires IRQ 2,3,4, or 5
to be available. The cost is $44 shipping included, and the number to call is
800-872-6867, to order or for more information.
Most importantly, the upgrade kit works. It'll enable you to postpone
purchasing another CDROM drive, if you aren't too hard to please. Lynne
Lynne. You are an angel! It just so happens that my CD-ROM drive is
a SONY Model CDB-242…. one of the models you mention in your
message. Will contact Trantor and see what can be done. I did manage
to download the latest Microsoft driver for the CD-ROM. Things are
progressing. You have now risen from "friend" to "EXPERT friend"
Cheerio. HILARY.
Hilary,
I believe that you can get the newest Microsoft CDROM drivers from the
library in the WINEXT Forum, here on CIS. If not, the sysops there can tell you
where they are.
Lynne